Kildare roar to Liam MacCarthy status with convincing victory over Laois
Joe McDonagh Cup final: Kildare 2-26 Laois 1-19
Just 12 months after lifting the Christy Ring Cup, Kildare have remarkably added the Joe McDonagh Cup title and will compete in the Leinster SHC in 2026.
Brian Dowling's Lilywhites would have been happy to simply retain their Joe McDonagh Cup status this term, initially at least.
They lost their opening group game to Kerry, their ninth defeat from nine games in the competition, but have bounced back in incredible fashion since then to claim a historic win.
Tied at half-time in their first ever McDonagh Cup final, and fortunate to be level at that stage given the amount of chances favourites Laois wasted, Kildare cut loose after the break to beat Laois comfortably for the second time in the competition.
Second-half goals from Jack Sheridan and substitute Jack Travers proved crucial while free-taker David Qualter finished with 13 points on a famous day for the county.
But it was a powerful collective performance with centre-back Cian Boran standing out in a strong defence.
Kildare, who have already secured Division 1B hurling for 2026, will get an immediate chance to test themselves at the higher level next weekend when they play Dublin in an All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final.
Laois, who lost last year's Joe McDonagh Cup final too, have at least another week to run in their campaign with Tipperary set to visit Portlaoise in the MacCarthy Cup.
Just like the Dublin footballers a week earlier on the same turf, Laois reflected on a first-half of squandered chances which cost them dearly in the end.
The half-time stats made for painful reading for them; 11 wides, five point attempts that dropped short and a shot at goal that was saved.
Kildare were more efficient when the ball was at the opposite Davin End and started brighter, showing no signs of anticipated nerves.
It was their first final at the grade and they were bidding to return to Leinster championship hurling for the first time since losing to Westmeath 21 years ago.
But they were calm and composed and deserved their early 0-4 to 0-2 lead with Sheridan, James Burke and Qualter picking off three terrific points from play.
They showed their athleticism in the 18th minute when they snuffed out a Laois goal chance and worked a speedy move up the pitch that ended with a free and a handy Qualter tap over.
Free-taker Qualter finished the half with seven points to his credit and was influential in open play too.
Kildare retained their two-point lead approaching the half-hour mark when they were 0-9 to 0-7 ahead.
But with the Laois wides tally into double figures at that stage, the scoreline flattered the Lilywhites.
Three Laois points in a row from James Keyes and free-taker Tomas Keyes amounted to a strong finish to the half from them, levelling it up at 0-11 apiece at the break.
And Laois held onto that momentum with their goal coming just seconds after the restart.
Paddy Purcell raced clear with the ball from the throw-in and though his eventual shot off the turf was saved, Ben Conroy came sliding in and bundled it to the net.
Laois were desperate to kick on from there and to impose themselves on the game but couldn't.
Instead, it was Kildare that reeled off two separate bursts of three points, taking a three-point lead at the hour mark and then killing off Laois with the two goals.
Travers grabbed his in the 61st minute, following up on the rebound after Sheridan's initial shot was blocked.
Five minutes later, Sheridan netted himself, shrugging off a jersey pull and darting beyond Ryan Mullaney to get a low shot away that hit the net.
Kildare sub Muiris Curtin pointed in the 68th minute and punched the air in delight, realising that the job was done at that stage.
Scorers for Kildare David Qualter 0-13 (0-11f, 0-1 65), Jack Sheridan 1-4, Jack Travers 1-1, Gerry Keegan 0-3, James Burke 0-2, Simon Leacy 0-1, Paul Dolan 0-1, Muiris Curtin 0-1.
Scorers for Laois: Tomas Keyes 0-6 (0-5f), Ben Conroy 1-2, Padraig Delaney 0-2 (0-2f), James Keyes 0-2, Paddy Purcell 0-2, PJ Scully 0-2 (0-1f), Lee Cleere 0-1, Fiachra C Fennell 0-1, James Duggan 0-1.
KILDARE: Paddy McKenna; Richy Hogan, Rian Boran, Daniel O'Meara; Paul Dolan, Cian Boran, Simon Leacy; Daire Guerin, Cathal McCabe; Cathal Dowling, Jack Sheridan, David Qualter; Darragh Melville, James Burke, Gerry Keegan.
Subs: Jack Travers for Dowling 59, Muiris Curtin for McCabe 64, Conn Kehoe for Melville 69, Liam O'Reilly for Dolan 69, Oisin Lynam for Keegan 72.
LAOIS: Cathal Dunne; Fiachra C Fennell, Jordan Walshe, Cody Comerford; Padraig Delaney, Lee Cleere, Diarmaid Conway; Aidan Corby, James Keyes; Paddy Purcell, Tomas Keyes, David Dooley; Mark Dowling, Jer Quinlan, Ben Conroy.
Subs: Aaron Dunphy for Tomas Keyes 54, Padraic Dunne for Comerford 60, James Duggan for Dowling 62, Ryan Mullaney for Walsh 64, PJ Scully for Conroy 66.
Referee: Michael Kennedy (Tipperary).
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The 42
an hour ago
- The 42
Sligo and Wexford win in Tailteann Cup, Mayo reach All-Ireland MFC semi-final
Tailteann Cup Preliminary quarter-finals Wexford 5-23 Antrim 2-21 Sligo 1-27 Carlow 2-19 Electric Ireland All-Ireland minor football championship Quarter-finals Mayo 3-13 Offaly 4-7 *** Advertisement WEXFORD AND SLIGO booked the last two spots in the quarter-finals of the Tailteann Cup today with their preliminary quarter-final victories over Antrim and Carlow respectively. Wexford saw off Antrim at home by 11 points as they hit five goals with Seán Nolan (2), Ben Brosnan, Mark Rossiter, and Robbie Brooks all raising green flags. Darragh Brooks scored 0-6 for the winners, while Dominic McEnhill (1-5), Michael Byrne (0-6), Ryan McQuillan (0-5) and Patrick Finnegan (1-0) chipped in for Antrim. Sligo prevailed by five points against Carlow in Tubbercurry, with captain Niall Murphy striking 0-8 while Alan McLoughlin scored their only goal. Paddy McDonnell found the net twice for Carlow. The draw will take place tomorrow on RTÉ Radio 1 on Morning Ireland after the news at 8.30am. In Bowl 1 will be the group stage winners – Kildare, Limerick, Fermanagh, Wicklow. In Bowl 2 will be this weekend's victors – Sligo, Westmeath, Wexford and Offaly. Fixture details will be finalised by the GAA's CCCC later tomorrow and the games will take place next weekend 14-15 June. Fixtures that can't happen due to repeat pairings are Kildare v Sligo, Limerick v Westmeath, Fermanagh v Wexford, and Wicklow v Offaly. The last of the All-Ireland minor football quarter-finals took place today with Mayo defeating Offaly 3-13 to 4-7. Conor Hession, Dara Flanagan, and Conor Coghill netted for the winners, who were ahead 3-7 to 1-4 at half-time. Tony Furey, Ruairí Woods, Dylan Dunne, and Cian McNamee grabbed the goals for Offaly.
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
TV View: Cork freed from desire as they put an end to Limerick's Munster reign
Normal time, extra-time, cramp, penalties, despondency, rapture: all we were missing was a wink and it might have felt like Durban all over again. As Brendan Cummins put it, 'it's the kind of game where you'd want to be in the full of your health', him probably fretting about Marty Morrissey's wellbeing at that stage. 'My heart! My heart! My heart,' Marty had hollered, the Munster hurling fina l giving him palpitations. It was glorious stuff , and you'd imagine even those sport-a-phobes who'd set their machines to record Women Under Hitler's Flag for later viewing might have quite enjoyed the shoot-out at the Gaelic Grounds that popped up on their screens instead. They also got to see Dónal Óg Cusack's mind and senses being purified by a few thousand rebels trampolining on the pitch under the RTÉ gantry to the strains of Freed from Desire, Joanne Cantwell lucky to get more than a 'na-na-na-na-na, na-na, na-na-na, na-na-na' out of the fella, so exhilarated was he. READ MORE And Dónal Óg hadn't been too happy with the game going to extra-time, never mind penalties, reckoning it 'disfigured' the occasion. He had a point, of course: when even the ref's body could take no more, you knew it was all a bit too gruelling. And, need it be said, penalties are no way to decide a monumental tussle of such a kind; a replay would have been highly preferable. But still, some drama. If you'd watched the first half of Andorra v England before switching over for the hurling, there's a fair chance you would have appreciated the latter spectacle immensely more. 'The players looked bored,' said Roy Keane on ITV, but that was nothing compared to how those of us watching felt. The England fans ended up having to entertain themselves by incessantly chanting 'Starmer is a c***', giving the occasion the feel of a Reform rally, while Lee Dixon had to row back a touch on his notion that England would score as often as Leinster did at the Aviva Stadium. And that was on a regular enough basis, six tries helping them see off the challenge of Glasgow Warriors in their URC semi-final. But only 15,762 turned up to witness it all, which is somewhat adding to the notion that Leinster rugby fans are as enthusiastic about the URC as they would be about, say, having a colonoscopy. Leinster's Ross Byrne and Joe McCarthy celebrate Leinster's URC semi-final win over Glasgow Warriors. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho Not that Joe McCarthy was bothered. 'We know everyone loves to hate Leinster, that definitely drives us on,' he said to the RTÉ panel after the game. 'We've a great fan base and we don't really care about the outside noise.' 'If that's what drives them on to win it, deadly – but I don't think it's true,' said Fiona Coghlan, but sure look, that 'no one likes us, we don't care' approach to sporting life often works a treat. Kilkenny would have experienced a bit of it when they couldn't stop winning All-Irelands, but it's a whole 10 years since their last triumph, so you'd imagine the feeling has worn off. And they had to contend with even more empty seats at Croke Park than Leinster had at the Aviva when they took on Galway on Sunday. Which might have led you to think that next time around they should stage Leinster URC semi-finals and Leinster hurling finals as double-headers at the Gaelic grounds, and take the Munster decider to Croke Park. According to the Google, the biggest sports stadium in the world is North Korea's Rungrado, with a capacity of 114,000. Not even that would have been enough to cater for those wishing to attend Limerick v Cork: The 2025 Sequel. It would, though, have left 80,000-ish vacant seats at the Leinster final. 'It's been a non-event,' Jackie Tyrell sighed at half-time, himself and Joe Canning agreeing that the game should have been played in, well, a more compact venue. 'Should Leinster finals really be in here?' asked Jackie. 'I know the game isn't great, but any time it threatens to spark into life, the lack of atmosphere has just sucked the life out it.' Kilkenny won't be complaining, though, the six-in-a-row complete. But in ecstasy terms, no one partied harder than Cork and their faithful after their one-in-a-row. They had, at last, been freed from the desire of ending Limerick's unrelenting Munster reign.
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Kilkenny make it six Leinster titles on the trot as Galway revival falls short
Leinster SHC Final: Kilkenny 3-22 Galway 1-20 From the seemingly routine to the suddenly desperate, Kilkenny wrapped up their sixth successive Leinster hurling title in Croke Park on Sunday, and 77th in all, with a brief sigh of relief. Then perhaps a satisfied smile. After playing with typical Kilkenny heart and common sense, they either blinked or simply backed off, allowing Galway to come from 13 points down in the 58th minute, to twice make it a four-point game – including right at the end of normal time. Then in the three minutes of added time that followed, Kilkenny hit another 1-1 without reply, including a second goal gifted to Martin Keoghan, one which replacement Galway goalkeeper Darragh Walsh will wish to forget. And that was that. It all made for a heart-quaking last 10 minutes for Galway and their supporters, who were left wondering what might have been if only they'd come alive a lot earlier. On a grey afternoon at GAA headquarters, they failed to produce a single shot at the Kilkenny goal in the first half, also going for long passages where they appeared to forget how to score from play at all. READ MORE When Paddy Deegan's long-range point put Kilkenny 13 points up in the 58th minute, 2-19 to 0-12, some of those among the crowd of 37,503 were eying up the exits. Then it all changed dramatically when Galway hit 1-6 within the next eight minutes, starting with a point from play by midfielder Seán Linnane. The excellent Cathal Mannion added another, and replacement Tiernan Killeen promptly chipped in with two more. Up to that point, Galway had been unable to get a clear shot at the Kilkenny goal. In the 63rd minute, Mannion sent a free short to Brian Conconnon, who tore into the Kilkenny defence, and shot cleanly into the top right corner. Two more scores, one from Kevin Cooney and a Mannion free, slimmed the gap to four, and suddenly anything seemed possible. Two more points were exchanged – Kilkenny's Billy Ryan scoring after a brilliant fetch from the majestic Huw Lawlor, then another from Cooney – before the black-and-amber wave came again, pulling up the drawbridge for good. Luke Hogan's long-range shot from under the Hogan Stand fell short, only Walsh completely misread the trajectory of the ball in the Galway goal. It dropped over his head and into the path of Keoghan, who nonetheless pounced with beautiful timing. Galway goalkeeper Darragh Walsh drops the ball ahead of Martin Keoghan scoring a goal for Kilkenny during the Leinster final at Croke Park. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho It was rough luck on Walsh, the Turloughmore goalkeeper called into the action at half-time and his first championship game for Galway after Éanna Murphy was forced to retire with a suspected concussion. That resulted from an accidental collision with Keoghan after he scored Kilkenny's first goal, two minutes before half-time. Mullen then had the last say, bringing his tally to 0-3 for the afternoon, one of the 10 different Kilkenny scorers. Not long after referee Johnny Murphy blew for time as Galway manager Micheál Donoghue made his way over the Walsh, still grounded in some state of disbelief. A word or two of consolation later and Walsh was back on his feet. Still Kilkenny's eight-point winning margin in no way flattered. Galway were out of contention for long stretches, especially for the 36 minutes or so in the middle period of the game when they couldn't produce a single score from play. In the meantime, the 37-year-old TJ Reid started to show once again his genius for making time and space into dimensions that suit his needs. In the 32nd minute, he caught his first clean ball in front of goal, only to be called for over-carrying A minute later, Reid took a pass from John Donnelly, on the 20m line, rocketing a shot into the lower left corner that was brilliantly saved by Éanna Murphy. But Martin Keoghan pounced for the rebound, a split-second before Murphy could clear on the second attempt. Murphy also took a knee to the head for his efforts, which forced his half-time retirement. At that stage Kilkenny were up 1-9 to 0-8, their four-point advantage defined by Keoghan's goal. In the 56th minute, Keoghan's pass to Reid was deftly finished low into the Galway net, and that defined Kilkenny's overall superiority. Reid finished with 1-4, and his 14th Leinster title. Kilkenny, with the slight breeze, scored first through Mullen after two minutes, before Galway scored the next three – Cooney, a Mannion free, and TJ Brennan giving them an early advantage. By the 15th minute, there were 10 scores, five each, from 10 different players. They were level six times in the mostly subdued first half, the sparsity of goal chances from both teams certainly surprising, as if they was some sudden allergy to direct ball. Kilkenny's TJ Reid celebrates scoring a goal. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho Galway's shortcomings were ultimately collective. Conor Whelan started well, but was less effective in the second half, and David Burke ultimately struggled around midfield. Without Mannion's consistency it might have been a lot worse. He finished with 0-11, including four from play. These slim scoring pickings by Galway for the first hour were also down to the sheer dominance of Lawlor at full back, and Richie Reid at centre back. Cian Kenny also had an excellent game at midfield alongside Jordan Molloy; they finished with 0-4 between them. Galway also shot 10 wides, including six in the first half, at which point Cooney was the only player among their full-forward line to score from play. Mannion's free at the start of the second half briefly reduced the margin to three again, before Kilkenny promptly hit three without reply, including a brilliant point from Billy Ryan. Had Galway somehow managed to stay closer, it might have made for a different outcome. Kilkenny, however, are deserving champions once again. KILKENNY: E Murphy; M Butler, H Lawlor, T Walsh; M Carey (0-2), R Reid, P Deegan (0-1); C Kenny (0-2), J Molloy (0-1), J Donnelly (0-1), A Mullen (0-4), B Ryan (0-3), S Donnelly (0-2), TJ Reid (1-4, four frees), M Keoghan (2-2). Subs: D Blanchfield for Walsh, L Hogan for Donnelly (both 58 mins); S Murphy for Butler (66); K Doyle for Molloy (70); H Shine for Ryan (71). GALWAY: É Murphy; P Mannion, Daithí Burke, F Burke; C Fahy, G Lee, TJ Brennan (0-1); S Linnane (0-1), David Burke; J Fleming (0-1), C Mannion (0-11, 7f), T Monaghan (0-1); C Whelan, B Concannon (1-0), K Cooney (0-3). Subs: D Morrissey for F Burke (37 mins, inj); D Walsh for Murphy (half-time), R Glennon for David Burke (43); T Killeen (0-2) for Fleming (53); A Burns for Monaghan (66). Referee: Johnny Murphy (Limerick)
